Henry Bemis: Unofficial Saint of 2011

[Jenne]

eh they can't all be happy endings

No, but on The Twilight Zones, the unhappy endings should happen to lousy people.

Nah, I think on Twilight Zone, they show in fact that the good people are often bad, and that the lousy people are often not so lousy.  Like "real life."  The "duality" is really a sham, that we're not all black and white as the episodes themselves are.  It's the epitome, really, of sci fi in its essence.  Throwing up the "other" into our faces even as it looks strange and supernatural, till it's close up and we realize:  we're staring into a mirror.

[Jenne]

I dunno, were I married to Bemis, I'd probably be a shitneck to him too.  He's not the most loveliest of humans, after all.  And his choice in wives points at his poor taste.  Maybe I'm just not entirely convinced that he didn't deserve what he got.  The message wasn't really about reading--it was about choices and how you choose what you do in your life.  The drudgery that was this man's life was STILL his choice--when the drudgeries were taken way without his will, he was still a failure.

Because he dropped his glasses?

The fact that he was such a fixated person on BOOKS.  There's no fucking life out there, but the books are going to save him?  And then the books are taken away, too.  Why is that?

I just think he's not being "punished" for being un-lousy, but the opposite.  For not choosing the "right things" while he still had the "time."  Time was always on his side, but his face was in books, not dealing actively with his life, in the then and there.

[Jenne]

I dunno, were I married to Bemis, I'd probably be a shitneck to him too.  He's not the most loveliest of humans, after all.  And his choice in wives points at his poor taste.  Maybe I'm just not entirely convinced that he didn't deserve what he got.  The message wasn't really about reading--it was about choices and how you choose what you do in your life.  The drudgery that was this man's life was STILL his choice--when the drudgeries were taken way without his will, he was still a failure.

Being a failure doe not equate to deserving to be completely isolated, starving, and blind.

It's allegorical.

Ever read Job?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Also, I reject the notion that a man is a failure because he won't interact with assholes any more than he has to, or because he enjoys reading.

Or even because he has a boring job.

Or even because he married the wrong person.  That shit happens to more than 50% of the population.

Fact is, at every turn, Bemis attempted to be nice to people while interacting with them.  At every point, the people he interacted with shat on him for the sheer joy of doing so, and to get laughs from their coworkers, etc.  This isn't his fault.

And I refuse to consider a nice, hard-working, well-read man to be a failure.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The fact that he was such a fixated person on BOOKS.  There's no fucking life out there, but the books are going to save him?  And then the books are taken away, too.  Why is that?

I just think he's not being "punished" for being un-lousy, but the opposite.  For not choosing the "right things" while he still had the "time."  Time was always on his side, but his face was in books, not dealing actively with his life, in the then and there.

So the solution was to give up his one joy in life, so he could spend more time interacting with assholes?

The only person in that story that didn't deserve a kick in their bits was Bemis. 

[Phox]

I dunno, were I married to Bemis, I'd probably be a shitneck to him too.  He's not the most loveliest of humans, after all.  And his choice in wives points at his poor taste.  Maybe I'm just not entirely convinced that he didn't deserve what he got.  The message wasn't really about reading--it was about choices and how you choose what you do in your life.  The drudgery that was this man's life was STILL his choice--when the drudgeries were taken way without his will, he was still a failure.

Being a failure doe not equate to deserving to be completely isolated, starving, and blind.

It's allegorical.

Ever read Job?

Yes. Where's the redemption?  

Also, I reject the notion that a man is a failure because he won't interact with assholes any more than he has to, or because he enjoys reading.

Or even because he has a boring job.

Or even because he married the wrong person.  That shit happens to more than 50% of the population.

Fact is, at every turn, Bemis attempted to be nice to people while interacting with them.  At every point, the people he interacted with shat on him for the sheer joy of doing so, and to get laughs from their coworkers, etc.  This isn't his fault.

And I refuse to consider a nice, hard-working, well-read man to be a failure.

Also, this.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Fit in.

Be like everyone else.

Interact with people who hate you.

Smile at people you despise.

It's a Bozo's world.

[Jenne]

He rejected them as they rejected him, and he ended up without them, to his own final lament. The allegory is pretty clear. There's a point between this guy's gentile nihilism and embracing all to self-subversion as you two ate suggesting, Rog. There's liking reading, then there's liking reading to the point that it's your whole life.

I'm not saying Bemis deserves annihilation as everyone else got, but neither does he deserve absolution just because others close to him made him weaker. They made his character pathetic on purpose, villainizing his everyday contacts. But his desire to shut himself away to the exclusion of all else seems to point to his inability to see the forest for the trees... Am on my phone so am not explaining myself well, sorry.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

He rejected them as they rejected him, and he ended up without them, to his own final lament. The allegory is pretty clear. There's a point between this guy's gentile nihilism and embracing all to self-subversion as you two ate suggesting, Rog. There's liking reading, then there's liking reading to the point that it's your whole life.

I'm not saying Bemis deserves annihilation as everyone else got, but neither does he deserve absolution just because others close to him made him weaker. They made his character pathetic on purpose, villainizing his everyday contacts. But his desire to shut himself away to the exclusion of all else seems to point to his inability to see the forest for the trees... Am on my phone so am not explaining myself well, sorry.

He was right to reject them.  Assholes exist to be rejected.

I'd do the same thing, except that I am a horrible cunt by nature, and prefer to punish them.  Fortunately, I don't need glasses, so I'm all set.

[hooplala]

He rejected them as they rejected him, and he ended up without them, to his own final lament. The allegory is pretty clear. There's a point between this guy's gentile nihilism and embracing all to self-subversion as you two ate suggesting, Rog. There's liking reading, then there's liking reading to the point that it's your whole life.

I'm not saying Bemis deserves annihilation as everyone else got, but neither does he deserve absolution just because others close to him made him weaker. They made his character pathetic on purpose, villainizing his everyday contacts. But his desire to shut himself away to the exclusion of all else seems to point to his inability to see the forest for the trees... Am on my phone so am not explaining myself well, sorry.

He was right to reject them.  Assholes exist to be rejected.

I'd do the same thing, except that I am a horrible cunt by nature, and prefer to punish them.  Fortunately, I don't need glasses, so I'm all set.

I guess the point is, don't masturbate.  You will need your eyesight when the fuckers are all dead.

[LMNO]

Better ending: Everyone vanishes, Bemis, emerges, and sees hundreds of fellow bookworms, blinking in the sunlight, holding a stack of books.


Finally, a world without shitnecks.  A world for them.



LMNO
-petty idealist.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Better ending: Everyone vanishes, Bemis, emerges, and sees hundreds of fellow bookworms, blinking in the sunlight, holding a stack of books.


Finally, a world without shitnecks.  A world for them.



LMNO
-petty idealist.

I could enjoy a world like that.  If they'd all stay quiet and read, I mean.

[hooplala]

Better ending: Everyone vanishes, Bemis, emerges, and sees hundreds of fellow bookworms, blinking in the sunlight, holding a stack of books.


Finally, a world without shitnecks.  A world for them.



LMNO
-petty idealist.

I could enjoy a world like that.  If they'd all stay quiet and read, I mean.

Diogenes Club as the world, FTW!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Better ending: Everyone vanishes, Bemis, emerges, and sees hundreds of fellow bookworms, blinking in the sunlight, holding a stack of books.


Finally, a world without shitnecks.  A world for them.



LMNO
-petty idealist.

I could enjoy a world like that.  If they'd all stay quiet and read, I mean.

Diogenes Club as the world, FTW!

This.

Though, to be honest, I'm more of a people person, myself.  I love having a huge city full of shitnecks to abuse.  I love watching monkeys do stupid things to themselves, and everything within 100 meters of them.

So his heaven, not so much my heaven.

[Jenne]

I guess what I was saying was, even a cute, gentle old man who just wants to read in his pathetic little existence is going to get shit on in life, even when things finally go his way.  And guess what?  That's ok.  Beause he's not getting shit on for any other purpose really than he just exists.  He's  not perfect, and if you knew him, perhaps he's just as shitty in his own way as those who ridiculed him for being him.

He had the "last laugh" in the end, and even that was a sad little whimper.  I think if he was a "worthier" opponent of all fate had in store for him, he'd be more of a hero.  But instead, he's, again, as in his former life without the bomb dropping, the anti-hero.  And we all can identify with that scenario.

Hate it, love it, but it's basically the same concept all around.  I'm not lockstep in favor of this, but I do think it is not a bad road to go--rejecting all extreme rounds and goals to the exclusion of all else because it's convenient or you're lazy or the other way's too painful but will in the longrun gain you your own salvation...

But I think I'm overthinking this and so backing out.    When do I ever do differently, anyway?